What you see in the jail is less than pleasant.
It seems like everyone behind the bars has turned into the brainless monsters you've been fighting the entire night. They try to grab you from behind the rusty white steel, but luckily the doors are locked.
At the end of the hall, you can either take a left or a right. On the right is a lever on the wall that seems out of use, and the door is locked. You begin to walk to the left, where you're greeted by an unfamiliar voice.
"I can't believe it! A real human!" You hear a male voice say, clearly sounding happy to see you. "Hello, human!"
The sentence makes you snort. While Leon likes to make sure you're close to him in general, whenever you meet new people, he grows very protective to an almost paranoid extent, standing half in front of you, just because he can.
He wouldn't want your pretty head to get bit off.
"Are we the last ones alive?"
You're not sure what to think of the man standing in front of you, though behind bars. He's smoking a cigarette, with his hair in a low ponytail and a pair of glasses sitting on his nose.
"No, there's a few of us." You reply.
"Oh. Well that's good news, I guess. Unless Irons sent you."
Leon frowns. "Irons?"
"Brian Irons. Police chief. Hopefully someone's dinner by now."
You furrow your brows. That was certainly not something you expected to hear. "What? Why?"
"He's the asshole that locked me in here."
"I'm sure he had a good reason." Leon responds almost immediately, seemingly unimpressed by this survivor.
The guy nods, throwing away his cigarette just after inhaling one last time. "He did. I was about to blow the whistle on his dirty ass. I'd have done the same thing too, I guess."
"What are you talking about?"
The three of you are interrupted the moment you hear the sound of one of the jail doors opening. It's silent again after that, and you look from the direction of the noise to Leon. "What was that?"
"Hey! Pretty girl. I'll make you a deal. Unlock this cell and I'll give you this. There's no other way outta that parking garage, believe me!" Both you and Leon grimace at the way he addressed you. He's holding up the key card for the shutter.
Well, at least now you know where it is.
And you just can't let go of your damn sarcasm. "Buddy, I don't know if you've noticed, but the power is out. Even if we wanted to let you out, we wouldn't be able to."
He knows you have a point, but the guy is desperate. "Look, we're all prisoners in this station. So either we play nice and help each other out—" He pauses the moment you hear another sound from somewhere in the garage. "Shit. It's coming."
Leon gets Matilda out of his holster out of instinct. "What's coming?"
The man backs up, now standing near the wall as he looks around, seemingly scared and impatient at the same time. "C'mon—c'mon, don't be an asshole, okay! You need this! Just get me the fuck outta here!"
He's only barely finished his sentence when somebody's hand suddenly breaks through the wall. The huge hand picks the man up by his head, lifting his body from the floor. Leon has his gun raised, aiming at whatever the hell is happening in front of you, but you both just watch. The hand stops moving the man for a brief second until he squeezes, breaking the man's skull.
Holy shit.
Holy fucking shit.
You watch with your mouth agape how the man's body drops to the floor, mouth hanging open with his eyes nearly popping out. Whatever it was that just crushed his head is walking off with loud footsteps, the blood of the man still on the wall.
The sight is horrible. You actually want to throw up now. It makes you feel sick to your stomach. With wide eyes, you look at Leon. "What the fuck!?"
Before either of you can do anything, you hear footsteps again — this time much softer ones, heels. You've already grabbed your gun and Leon aims at where the footsteps are coming from.
"Show yourself!"
And the mystery lady is back. She just struts towards you casually, swaying her hips. "It's just me, so you can put that thing away."
You put your weapon back in its place. "I don't even know what happened... he just... got crushed." You're still heavily breathing.
She puts her hands on the bars. "I told you to get out of here. You wouldn't want to end up like Ben, would you?"
So that's his name. Huh. He didn't strike you as a Ben. "Wait, you knew him?"
"He was an informant. Had information of use to my investigation." The woman crosses her arms, eyeing the ugly and bloody sight in front of her as if it's some fascinating painting in a museum.
"So what he said about Irons was true?"
You're not sure whether she doesn't know the answer or just doesn't want to give it to you, but she begins to strut away again. Leon decides that he's had enough and grabs her by the arm. He usually doesn't like getting touchy with people — so he really surprised himself when he felt how much he enjoys holding your hand — but this lady is annoying him to the point he's willing to do anything.
"You can't keep walking away from us!" He states, and said lady shrugs his arm off. "We don't even know your name."
She looks at the both of you through her sunglasses. "As I recall, you haven't exactly introduced yourselves either."
He introduces you both by giving her only your first names. He would've given a fake name had you not been standing beside him, just in case. Who knows what she knows about everything that's happening here.
The woman is silent for a few seconds before she tilts her head. "Find a way out, Leon." She says his name mockingly. "If you and your girlfriend make it that far, we'll talk. The name's Ada."
"We certainly will." Leon says as she walks off, and you swear you heard her scoff just a little bit before she's gone from your sight.
You just turn to him, raising your brow.
He shrugs. "What is it?"
"You don't like her."
While he knows what you're getting at, he chooses to wave it off regardless. "You do?"
"Let me just rephrase that real quick. You seem to really dislike her. How 'bout that?"
"There is a possibility that you're correct."
Rolling your eyes at his answer, you sigh. "Just tell me why. I'm not an idiot."
Maybe not, but you are a bit naive. Just a little bit.
He doesn't say that out loud though. "I think she's acting a little shady for an FBI agent. She could help us find a way out, but instead she's just walking around, acting all high and mighty."
"Leon, have you seen the way you walk around here?"
"This is about Ada, not me."
"People dodge questions when they know you've got a point." You grin at him, finger poking at his chest. "You're no different."
He takes a hold of your finger. "Damn. Here I was, thinking I was unique to you."
A laugh escapes your mind. "Oh, you're unique, all right."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Please. Your whole act is way too predictable." You respond, and when he puts his hands on his hips without saying anything, cocking his brow, you continue. "Look at you. You act all untouchable, like you're so fucking cool with your flirty comments, nice hair, pet names and your suit and red tie."
He pretends to think, averting his eyes from your gaze while he steps closer to you. You naturally take a step back. "That your type?"
If you didn't know any better, you'd say he's planning to back you up against this wall. "Depends on the person, really."
"Yeah?" He nods, the corners of his mouth curling upwards. "What about me, then?"
He's so close, and his eyes are boring into yours to an extent that you want to tear your gaze away from him, but you can't. "I—um—we should get going, right?"
A chuckle that shouldn't sound as sinful as it does rolls past his lips after his tongue's darted out to wet them. "Let's go then, Pumpkin."
Quick to regain your wit, you scoff. "Really? Again?"
"Until you tell me a preference, I will keep calling you every pet name that comes to mind." He winks at you. "Predictable, right? As you said I was."
"Forgot to mention that you're also annoying as shit, too."
"You're a terrible liar."
"You'd be surprised, actually."
Hearing more footsteps in the distance made you both stiffen up a bit, rudely interrupting the conversation you were having. Leon looks at Ben, especially the key card hanging on his neck. You can't open the cell because the power is out. There's nothing here you can use to take it from his neck through the bars.
You cross your arms over your chest. "We gotta find a way to turn the power back on." If you two can find a way out, maybe Ada would be willing to share some more details about what's going on.
On the table, he finds a tool, some sort of crank, next to a note. He reads it out loud. "'The power panel is out. Can the person in charge of it please take care of it ASAP!? I assume everyone knows, but since the jail's power panel is old as hell, we're gonna need those custom power panel parts no one makes anymore. There should be a few in the generator room. Addendum: I got word that there's only one of those power panel parts in the generator room. The guy that's here to fix the bell in the clock tower should have another, so someone swipe — I mean, ask him nicely for it, please.'"
Processing everything, you nod slowly. "Wait, the map should tell us where we gotta go."
As you spread them out on the table, Leon's eyes begin to move rapidly. "The generator room is nearby. We gotta pass through the kennel to get there. Then we need to enter the clock tower."
Remembering that the R.P.D. has a huge clock tower, you get out the map from the upper floor of the station. There it is. On the third floor, west side, there's a hallway just above the Main Hall that leads to the clock tower.
"That's where we gotta be." You say, tapping on the place on the map.
Leon's eyes trail over the maps of the station. "We can get there by climbing up those stairs, then go through the storage room, but we're gonna need a tool to get past this shutter over here."
Goddamn. How the hell did anyone get any work done in this place? You find it unbelievable that people actually used to work here. Roaming the halls like normal people. Alive people.
No. You need to shake off those thoughts and get to work.
"Generator room first, then." He says, folding the maps back up while gesturing for you to come with him.
You walk back past all the jail cells holding zombies, then past the small office, back to the parking garage to enter a door you haven't before.
There's two options. Go to the right or keep walking forward.
Leon doesn't wait for you to decide and makes the decision himself, knowing that you'll follow him regardless. You pass a corner, where you find a blue herb, and you could've sworn you read the medicinal benefit of it was getting poison out of your body.
Taking that with you. Just in case. You never know.
Leon opens the door to the Kennel. The doors here in and around the parking garage are so much louder than the ones in the station — it's almost like the universe wants you to die.
Three dogs are caged up, barking as soon as they hear you coming in. A few other cages are empty, with open doors, and you really doubt that's a good sign.
You flinch the moment you hear gunshots next to you. Leon gives each dog about two or three shots, killing them.
To be fair, he was right to do so, but damn do those bullets sound loud in such an echoing space. In the green bin next to the door, he finds some high-grade gunpowder, which he stores away in the little space he's got left.
The two of you move around the room to find another door, which leads to a new hall. At the end seems to be a shutter that you can open with the tool you picked up at the jail, and you insert the item to twist it around until it opens. There's a small staircase there, but instead of going there already, your companion has other ideas.
"Doll." He says, making you turn your head to him. "We missed a room."
Before he can say anything else, you shake your head. "No. Absolutely not. I was joking when I said I wanted to go in here."
"Every room we've come across so far has had something of value in it."
"I am not entering a fucking morgue. That's the one room with guaranteed zombies."
He raises his brow. "After all the shit we've dealt with at this point — zombies, dogs, lickers, your uncle—"
"If that even was him to begin with."
"—you can handle this. I got your back, remember? I thought you wanted to be equals here."
You glare at him the moment he says that last sentence. "Dick." Using your own words against you. Unbelievable.
He chuckles. "Told you you were a better person than I was. I don't play fair."
"I swear to God, you'll get karma for this."
"I'm stuck with your ass, I think that's enough of a punishment already."
Damn. He's on a roll here. "Yet you've been checking out this ass all night, you prick."
"I sure have." He's really getting a kick out of this. While it's all playful, he has been checking you out several times, so it kind of is the truth. But you know that, and you'd be lying if you said you didn't like him looking at you.
To be completely honest, you've been looking at his ass too.
It looks great in those pants. Fuck.
Anyway.
"Alright. C'mon." You sigh, letting him enter the room first.
There's a guy with bloody hands sitting down against the wall, hunched over, and Leon takes the shotgun off his back to aim it at its head.
He shoots and the shot blows up its head completely. You breathe out in relief. He pats your shoulder for a second, reassuring you.
Even though he's sarcastic, making dry jokes and flirting with you as if he's not fighting his way out of an outbreak with an ulterior motive, he wants to erase everything he's seen so far from his mind. The zombies who used to be people, the damn lickers, all the blood—so much blood. It's the only thing you keep seeing everywhere.
It makes him sick to his stomach.
He knows you're scared — you don't look like you are, but you remind him every now and then. He doesn't pity you, but he does feel a shred of guilt, because it's his fault that you're here. He drove the two of you to the city when he could've gone the other direction, knowing exactly that Raccoon City was equal to hell on earth. It's all on him.
Something flips inside his head. You don't deserve any of this. This experience will give you trauma that you'll have to carry with you for the rest of your life. You're a good person — he's not.
Fuck Umbrella's orders. Fuck Ada and whatever lie she's got going on. He's going to get that sample and escape the city alive with you, together. He won't let you go through this hellhole alone.
So he squeezes your shoulder with a nod that silently says exactly that.
You put up a smile when he does so before you turn back to see an Autopsy Record on a table. You read it quickly, seeing that a man, who was a known kleptomaniac, was deceased.
Kleptomaniacs steal things.
Your brain is incredibly slow to connect the dots due to the awful headache you're having, but it happens nonetheless. It's almost funny.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we're gonna need to search the sliding trays."
Leon, who's now read the same note as well, hums. "You take the left, I'll take the right."
"Okay."
He moves away, and you start on the right end of the left wall. The tray doesn't seem to open much further than the small bit you've opened now, so you just leave it. The one next to it surprises you, because there's a shaking body in it, so you just shake your head to yourself.
Nope. We're just gonna put that one back.
The one next to it can't open all the way either. Then there's an empty one, so that's easy. You jump all of a sudden when you hear Leon shriek out.
He's got a disgusted look on his face. You already have your gun raised, but it's some big cockroaches on one of the trays. He shrugs his shoulder.
You just can't help yourself, quoting the words he told you just outside this room with a grin on your face. "After all the shit we've dealt with at this point — zombies, dogs, lickers, my uncle—"
"Yeah, yeah, don't get cute now."
"You're saying I'm not cute already?"
"You absolutely are." He says before his voice turns monotonous and casual. "Whenever you put your mouth to good use, that is."
Christ. That comment's got two meanings, and you both know it.
He's usually not like this with women. Sure, he flirts as easily as drawing his next breath, but he always remains respectful — he's not an impulsive man, but he's really acting before thinking right now, and he hopes you like it rather than being turned off by it.
A laugh escapes your lips, and he can breathe properly again, because that sound is really the only thing he wants to hear tonight.
You move on to the next sliding tray, pulling it open to find a properly clothed dead body inside. Its face is hideous, like many of the zombies you've already encountered tonight. The body doesn't move even the slightest bit, so you feel relieved, but you're still on high alert.
Next to its head is a key — it's pink, in the form of a diamond. Right. There's a door in the hallway of the S.T.A.R.S. Office that has a diamond door. You have to get back to the station either way, so making a small detour won't hurt.
That is unless you get bitten. That would hurt.
The moment you grab the key to put it away seems to be the cue for the zombie to wake up from his little nap. It makes a sound, arms up in the air while falling off the sliding tray, face first onto the floor — which you would've found funny if it weren't for the fact that the fucker was about to bite your head off.
You get your gun out, getting some good shots in as well as missing quite a few. Leon helps you out by giving the guy several headshots from across the room, and you give the final one that makes it drop to the floor.
A sigh leaves your mouth. "Let's get out of here before he gets up."
"Agreed."
He puts his hand on your lower back when you walk over to him, eyeing the somewhat dead bodies on the floor while you leave the room. Once outside, you reload your gun. It's not done very smoothly, but it does the job. Practice is what you need, after all.
You take a few steps up the stairs, which leads to the Generator Room. From what you can see, there's no zombies inside, or anything else that's undead for that matter.
There's some boxes and other things stored inside, alongside a green herb, which you spot on your left. Leon finds some gunpowder by the wall. What catches your eye immediately is an orange box sitting on a small table opposite of the wall. You open up the side to reveal one of the two power panel parts you need to power the place up again. Holding it up in your hand, you turn to Leon, only to notice he's not standing there anymore.
Taking a few steps, you see him standing by a panel next to a window that shows a red light above a door. You look at the panel, and Leon speaks while flicking some of them on and off. "They all run a different amount of voltage to the meters, so we need the right amount to restore the power." The moment the first two switches are off and the two on the right are on, the light by the door turns green and the light turns on.
It all makes way too much noise for your liking. You swear you hear something behind you, and the moment you hear the growling and barking of a dog, you know it's bad. Really bad.
Oh, shit.
One of the zombie dogs just jumps the fucking fence that's in the middle of the room, and Leon has decided that he's really had it. He whips out the shotgun, giving the dog the shots needed to make sure it drops to the floor. You make a run to get out of the room, seeing a dog behind the barricade there, but you both choose to ignore it for the time being.
You run down the hall to the Kennel, where a dog bursts into the room through a grate, giving you a minor heart attack.
The dogs actually scare you more than the zombies, because Jesus Christ are they fast. If one of those things bites you, you're done.
Leon notices he can evade the dogs quite easily, so he runs in zig-zag motions to make sure they can't get to him. You two reach the door with the now green light above it and make a run to get there.
It seems that you're safe from the dogs now. You take a moment to breathe. It genuinely surprises you that you've made it so far without any zombie-things biting you, but then again, you have Leon with you. Though you're certainly defending yourself more than you did compared to when you just entered the station, so you suppose you feel good about that.
It's awfully quiet in the hallway you're standing in. Neither of you have any idea what it leads to, so you start to walk, passing the corner and going up the stairs.
The first thing you see is a few windows, green-ish walls that remind you of the horrifying place that is the station. Is this a back door? It's both weird and fitting how everything in this place connects with one another.
You get another minor heart attack when a zombie comes out of nowhere and starts to beat against the glass of the window. You don't waste any time, using the boards you were still carrying with you somehow to close it off as fast as possible.
Leon grabs Matilda and checks the door by the stairs, though not before taking the shotgun shells sitting on a plank across from it. He carefully flicks on the light as he peeks inside to find that the room is empty.
Well, empty of zombies at least. There's a shitload of stuff in there.
"Doll! It's safe here." He calls out to you, the nickname feeling all too natural on his tongue, and you enter the room. There's a cowboy-like hat on the table, as well as a typewriter. Storage box, lockers — the room might be small, but there's plenty of useful items inside.
Leon whips open the lockers, though still somewhat carefully because of that zombie popping out of the locker in the room upstairs, but he's pleasantly surprised to find some high-grade gunpowder and handgun ammo.
You walk to the back of the room behind the wall, eyes trailing over the empty beds, the bag on the floor, then to the magnum ammo on the sink. You've collected so many rounds for that gun already, if only the gun itself was in your possession.
There's also another electrical part, one that looks awfully similar to the one you put in the fuse box at the shutter by the Main Hall not too long ago.
"We're probably in the Break Room right now." Leon says when you walk back to him. He points at the map, which he apparently nicked from you when you weren't paying attention, because you didn't even know he had it. "We need to go through this hallway, then back to the Hall."
"Okay."
While your mind is blank when you're reloading and checking your gun, Leon frowns. "Your hands are trembling." He says.
It's not until then that you realize he's right, and you look up at him with big eyes. You didn't mean to look so sad, but apparently you do, because he puts his hand on them.
"You're doing good. We just need to hold out a little longer and then we're out of here, yeah?" He assures you, surprising himself with a soft voice he almost can't believe belongs to him.
Swallowing your fear, you nod in agreement. You can do this.
The two of you leave the Break Room, and Leon — with the exceptional hearing he has — can tell that there's something unpleasant waiting for you by the corner.
Something unpleasant being a small group of zombies lunging for you the moment they sense any movement.
Oh no. Fuck this shit. You cannot do this.
"What the fuck!?" You exclaim while quickly raising your gun and shooting, mimicking Leon's actions.
While he gets all the headshots, you fail miserably, and a zombie grabs you, but thank fucking God for the flash grenade you manage to shove in its mouth.
Right on time, you both close your eyes and cover your ears. The zombie Leon shot is down on the floor, the one you gave a flashbang seems like it went through a brain surgery went wrong.
You feel disgusted when you realize its blood is on your face and shirt that used to be white.
But no time to dwell on it. Not right now. You're on a mission.
Both of you look at the zombie that seems to be out on the floor, because it hasn't moved yet but you both know better to think that that means you're safe.
Leon puts his hand up, gesturing for you to stay back and keep quiet. You have no idea what he's planning. He steps closer to the zombie, then raises his foot to muster up all the strength he has to stomp its ugly face with his fancy shoes.
And you swear you can hear its skull breaking.
The man in the suit turns to look at you. "Put the electrical part in the box."
It takes you a few seconds to process what he's said, but you blink a few times and move to do it either way. The red light becomes green and the shutter in front of you opens.
Holy shit. You recognize it as the Watchman's Room, which is where you rescued Elliot earlier tonight.
Elliot. Marvin.
You're going back to the Main Hall, which means you're gonna see them too. You can go tell them that you've made progress and that you might just be on time for them to get them to a hospital nearby.
Your feet begin to move quicker instantly, energy becoming a bit higher again, and you feel more determined than before.
Leon notices this, but shrugs it off. All he knows is that he hates this hallway and wants to get past it as fast as possible.
So you move through the East Office, he shoots a guy with a shotgun and makes sure it's down forever.
The pair of you make it to the Main Hall, and you want to rush to the Goddess Statue to tell the two officers that you're still alive — but Leon holds you back instantly, shaking his head.
He holds his gun up, finger off the trigger, pointing it up as if to tell you to listen carefully. He takes a few steps forward, and there they are — and you feel all hope that you had leaving your body.
They've turned. They turned into the brainless monsters you've encountered in the rest of the station, the jail and the morgue.
Goddamnit. You spoke to them, you smiled at them, cried when they told you to go and save yourself. Now here they are, trying to kill you. They don't remember you, they don't remember anything. You curse yourself for imagining them having families, parents, children, maybe even pets. They were kind, loyal, good men. They didn't deserve to die.
It makes you feel utterly and completely useless. Maybe if you'd ran faster, maybe if you'd taken less time bantering with Leon, maybe if you'd done better, they would've been alive.
Since you're frozen in your spot, Leon pushes you back, takes his shotgun off his back and shoots the both of them. You flinch at the sight, but you know it's necessary.
They fall back and you just wanna lay down and die. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck!
"We didn't make it back in time. We weren't fast enough." You say softly, staring in front of you blankly with teary eyes and a building pressure in your chest. "I failed."
Leon looks at you. "There's nothing you could've done."
"I could've—I could've gotten them to a hospital, if only I'd been faster!" You tell him, the sudden burst of anger hitting you like a truck.
"The hospital?" He asks, taking a step towards you, towering over you. He might be approaching this wrong, but damn it all. "The hospital? How delusional are you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The entire city is infected. Everyone. Including the hospital staff. You're a fool if you think there's any survivors."
His harsh words make you even angrier. "So you just give up on everyone who's infected?"
"Yes, without a doubt, because you can't save them. Not without a vaccine, which we do not have."
"You're unbelievably selfish."
"And you're unbelievably stupid. Would you rather die trying to save someone you know can't be saved or live knowing you couldn't have done anything?"
A huff of frustration leaves your mouth. "Fuck you, Leon."
"Don't you dare say that to me." He states, closing even more distance between you. "It's not my fault you can't handle the truth. This is how the world works, Pumpkin, and if you don't feel the need to have a sense of self preservation, fine, but you should say so now because I'm not putting my life on the line for someone who's ready to die."
"I'm not—I don't wanna die."
"Good. Me neither. Welcome to the club."
"But I don't wanna live like this, either."
He frowns. "What are you saying?"
You glare at him. "I'm not letting these people die for nothing. I believe my uncle's company has something to do with this mess, and I'll find out what it is, with or without you — your choice."
He's dead silent for a little while, observing you, as if he's actually considering it. He's not. He knows he'll say yes, because then he has an excuse to go the lab with you, which is where he was planning to take you regardless.
He has you in his grasp. On the one hand, you're so naive, but he knows you're still smart enough to figure out what's happening here, and he enjoys the challenge.
"Fine. Let's go hunt some scientists, then."